Saskatchewan Plates

I was lucky enough to get back to Waterloo for a recruiting trip this week. The actual work portion was excellent. The non-work portion was eye opening.

I got to see a ton of people still in the area: Gee and Laura, Trish (She’s technically in Toronto), Tammy, Heather, Jarrett (technically in Ancaster), Andy, Shahnaz, and Nathan. I even ran into Dan and Paula who were visiting at the same time, and caught a quick coffee with Jamie in Toronto. I missed Lindsay and Gent this time around.

Waterloo fits like a pair of warn in jeans. There was no teething, no awkward warming up period. It was like I’d never left. I clipped down the 85, cursing the same old construction, across to university and then two years into the past. I hit lots of the old spots: Ethel’s, the Duke, the Spur (now the Texas Chainsaw), the Heuther, PBT, Curry in a Hurry. I walked up and down King street and around the campus. It was an incredibly comforting feeling to be that familiar with the surroundings. I also realized how much I miss seasons and weather. It was windy and rainy the entire time I was there, but I loved the cold and crisp breaths as I walked between buildings on campus. I loved the warmth of Ethel’s as I hurried out of the rain for a beer. Making my way around southern ontario in weather that was anything but idyllic felt almost like a return to normality.

That said, the most important thing I realized was that, despite how much I feel like I belong in Waterloo, I don’t. I realized that my deep emotional connection to that place is only tangentially based on the broken sidewalks that connect the establishments I frequented over those 5 years.

Waterloo, now, is entirely a city of memories. Remembering all those cold nights in line for Phil’s, or sitting at the bar at Ethel’s for Tacos with Kenshi and Gee, or Morty’s with the Garner Four. All the walks back from late lectures, or to the computer labs with Ed, Zam, and Brad. Remembering the summer nights hanging around on the construction in front of Echo Base, playing Mario Kart (Alex losing at the last minute!) in the old Albert house, hanging out in the Doug Fir lounge, or even our initial escapades from residence. Every square inch of that town is a reminder of some past event and even the mundane ones are fond. It’s a suburban time capsule of five incredible years.

I miss that time deeply, but a proper return to Waterloo would not bring that back, or more specifically, it would not bring the people back. Without the people over those five years, Waterloo would as much meaning as any other small college town. So it’s all of the Waterloo faces I have to thank. I can’t figure out a way to say this with less corniness, but having the opportunity to meet so many amazing people and spend the last five years with them was a blessing.

What I realized at the conclusion of my trip is that cities and places are merely the sets, the backdrops for memories. It’s the actors on the stage, not the stage itself, that make memories cherished.

It’s been a beautiful two days in Waterloo (this morning is rainy – it was bound to happen). Just driving into the city made me remember how much I love summer, particularly in this little town. I have though semi-seriously more than once of adjusting my San Francisco choice back to the little office in Waterloo.

But as much as the sweet scents of summer try, Waterloo can’t help but feel a little empty. Don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful to come back to Trish, and to sit down on the Ethel’s patio with Gee. The offical Trev-manda wedding will also be enjoyable. But Waterloo itself feels wrong. Did you ever go back to your old elementary or highschool after you had graduated? You know that feeling that, despite nothing being that different, you just didn’t really belong there anymore? I guess Waterloo feels a bit like that. Its time too, has come.

It’s all got me feeling a bit nostalgic and it likely will until I get back on the road, this time bound for Saskatoon. It’s looking less and less likely that a two day trip, but I’ll see how many hours I can knock off on the first day. If my Maritime trip has proved anything, it’s that I’m a marathon driver.

I leave you with a Canadian commercial I spotted yesterday that has been getting a fair bit of press (1) (2). It’s a certain kind of genius.

I’m approximately 12 hours from setting out towards New Brunswick on the three week east coast leg of the road trip. I don’t expect much time to get to a computer for the purposes of posting updates, but I will be communicating via Twitter as it’ll let me post by text message. Because I know half of you will be too lazy to click through and see the latest updates, I provide the latest ones here through the magic of tubes:

Removed because Twitter still can’t seem to figure out their availability problems
You can see the rest on my Twitter page.

Some absolute genius has a set of Garfield comics with all of Garfield removed, leaving Jon Arbuckle in a one-way neurotic conversation. It’s supremely enjoyable. For example:

I’m pretty sure this one is everybody’s favourite



This one reminds me of Duncan

Since I will be spending most of June and all of August in the Saskatoon area, I propose this:

K Car Mk. III

Discuss.

So despite the design still being uhh rough around the edges, I’ve moved CS and the City (my geekery tech blog) to its finally resting place: http://sean.lyn.ch – If that ain’t bitchinest domain name I don’t know what is. Along with it comes the email address: sean {atsign} lyn.ch – Lynch family members, if you want one of your own, let me know.

I make this announcement obviously prematurely because I’d like to draw your attention to this bad boy:

It’s the Tim Hortons Garmin Nüvi GPS that will be assisting my instinctual navigational skills as I head coast to coast this summer. Watch as I immediately locate the nearest Tim Hortons with a push of a button!

My Heuther girl informants have led me astray. The bar next to the patio is closed, but the patio itself is open for business. And it’s business time.

According to the UW Weather station, for a brief moment around 3pm yesterday April 17th, the temperature crested above the 20°C mark at 20.06°C, this officially making it spring (eat it scientific definition of equinox). And just in time to dick with my ability to study.

Coming home from the last wings night ever, I realized the thing I missed most about warm days wasn’t actually the day, but the smell of the night. Everything smells alive. Only six days now.

Stopping by the heuther for a quick lunch today I discovered to my horror:

The Barley Works (including Patio) is closed for the next three weeks!

This means that there will not be one last magical night with the whole gang on this town’s best patio. Those still in the Waterloo area on May Long weekend are invited to join me for a partial send off to drink to the friends that are no longer with us (as they are elsewhere).

I got all Nostalgic while printing in the Nova lab today. So many hours spent in there over the course of the last five years.

Uggh, I can’t even listen to slow music (I’m looking at you Sigur Ros) without associating it with all the “goodbye”s less than a week away. So I’ve been listening to a metric asston of Ska. I defy you to be depressed while listening to Ska music.

To celebrate our 4th anniversary of the Boys of Summer crew we decided a botch domain transfer was in order! 2.5 days later, it looks like the DNS is resolving correctly, and though Kenshi’s site still needs a few tweaks and the boysofsummer.ca email won’t be up for another day or two, my side of things appears to be functioning correctly!

I give sean.bos.ca a clean bill of health just in time to as my final five final exams start in only a matter of days and studying so far has been less than thorough. Beyond that I’ve got the east coast leg of the trip nailed down (with roll up the rim to win providing the GPS support!). Things are packed up around the house and hopefully I’ll be able to track down some subletters as well.

Here goes nothing!